ABC Gives Donald Trump’s Presidential Library $15 Million To Settle a Defamation Dispute.

(VOR News) – ABC News will donate $15 million to Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ mistaken claim that the president-elect was civilly accountable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.

ABC News apologised for Stephanopoulos’ March 10 “This Week” comments in an editor’s note on its website after a settlement was announced on Saturday.

Alejandro Brito, Donald Trump’s lawyer, will receive $1 million.

The settlement agreement calls ABC’s presidential library payment a “charitable contribution,” transferring the monies to a non-profit organisation that will operate the unbuilt library.

ABC News spokesperson Jeannie Kedas was pleased with the parties’ agreement to terminate the dispute per the court filing. The settlement was reached on Friday, and a Florida federal court ordered Donald Trump and Stephanopoulos to be deposed separately next Monday. Sworn testimony is no longer required after the settlement.

Trump’s visible signature and Stephanopoulos’ electronic signature with the initials GRS distinguished the agreement. The agreement was signed electronically by ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks President Debra O’Connell.

ABC News has 10 days to transfer $15 million to Brito’s legal firm’s escrow account for Trump’s library, according to the deal. The network must pay Brito’s legal fees within 10 days.

Though significant, ABC’s contribution to Donald Trump’s presidential library is likely to pay only a small percentage of the costs. As of 2021, the Obama Chicago library was expected to cost $830 million.

Trump sued ABC and Stephanopoulos in federal court in Miami after the program aired, in which the veteran “Good Morning America” anchor and “This Week” host misrepresented Carroll’s two civil lawsuits against Trump.

Stephanopoulos said on “This Week” with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., that Trump had been “found liable for rape” and “defaming the victim of that rape.” False statement.

No verdict established rape under New York law. In the initial trial last year, Donald Trump was found guilty of defaming Carroll and sexually assaulting her. He was ordered by a jury to pay her $5 million.

Trump was found guilty of more defamation charges and ordered to pay Carroll $83.3 million during a second Manhattan federal court trial in January.

Donald Trump challenges both decisions.

Carroll, a former advice columnist, said in a 2019 biography that Trump had sexually attacked her at Bergdorf Goodman, an expensive Manhattan department store opposite Trump Tower, in the mid-1990s after an accidental encounter.

Trump disputed Carroll’s charges, saying he had never met her at the store.

Carroll sued Trump for unspecified financial damages and a retraction of his defamatory statements after he called her a “nut job” who created “a fraudulent and false narrative” to sell her memoir.

Carroll told the jury in April 2023, “I am present because Donald Trump sexually assaulted me, and when I documented the incident, he claimed it did not occur.” He lied to me and damaged my reputation, therefore I’m rebuilding my life.

Carroll claimed that Donald Trump physically shoved her against a wall, pulled down her tights, kissed her aggressively, and penetrated her with his hand and penis while she fought after she helped him choose a gift for a woman in the dressing room.

She claimed to have escaped from him.

Carroll was favoured by the jury’s unanimous verdict, even though they found she did not prove Trump raped her “within the narrow, technical meaning of a specific section of the New York Penal Law,” as U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan stated in affirming the $5 million initial trial verdict.

Kaplan, who handled Carroll’s charges against Donald Trump, said the state code’s definition of rape is “far narrower” than many dictionaries, federal and state criminal legislation, and other modern instances.

New York law requires penile penetration of the vagina for rape convictions. Nonconsensual insertion of digits or other objects into the vagina or other physical orifices is called “sexual abuse”.

According to the ruling, Carroll “failed to demonstrate that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her, as the term ‘rape’ is commonly understood by the public.” The jury found Mr. Trump did that.

SOURCE: AP

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